The present invention relates to a rotatable cutting bit of the type having an improved head portion and depending shank.
Bits that are used in mining and for removing road surfaces are typically mounted in a machine having a power driven cutting wheel.
When employed on abusive material such as concrete, the attack bits encounter high pressures and undergo excessive steel wear around the tip section. Currently employed conically shaped tips not only experience degrees of blunting, thereby reducing machines speed, but also suffer from the presence of manufacturing flaws which can lead to total bit failure.
One example of commercially successful bits is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,497,520, issued on Feb. 5, 1985 to Ojanen and assigned to the same assignee as the present invention. The patent discloses and claims a rotatable cutting bit where the head portion consists of a base section, a conical tip section with a maximum diameter, and an intermediate section contiguous with the base and tip sections. Under manufacturing conditions the dies used in forming these bits experience wear at the point of maximum tip diameter (the seam) resulting in unwanted accumulation of uncompressed carbide material (flashing). Commonly known methods of polishing, such as mechanical tumbling, remove the flashing but generate stress cracks along the same thereby increasing the likelihood of bit failure.
As a consequence of the commercial success of assignees Patent No. 4,497,520, consideration has now been given to improvements in construction relative to methods of manufacture for such tooling for better quality and control in production volumes.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided, a rotatable cutting bit comprising a head portion, a shank portion depending from said head portion along a longitudinal axis, said head portion having a socket at the forward end, a hard insert having coaxially aligned and integral sections, said sections comprising a base section, a tip section, a first intermediate section contiguous with said base, a second intermediate section of uniform diameter contiguous with said first intermediate and tip sections, said base being fixedly mounted in said socket and having a first diameter, said tip section being conically shaped and having a maximum second diameter, said first intermediate section having a maximum third diameter, said second intermediate section having a fourth diameter equal to said second diameter, said second and third diameters each being less than said first diameter, said first intermediate section at said base forming a fillet at the junction thereof whereby said base forms a shoulder with said first intermediate section.
The present invention alleviates the disadvantages of premature blunting and the formation of manufacturing flaws by providing a small diameter tip and by providing an adjoining cylindrical intermediate section. In production, the tip end plunger completes its compression stroke on a vertical section of the die rather than on the angular seam section of the prior art, thereby reducing die wear and the associated problems of flashing accumulation and stress crack formation.